Thursday, June 10, 2010

Rabid fanger Haim Saban supports the Saban Center for Middle East Studies, which is part of The Brookings Institution. His vile shekels don't entirely wreck the rest of The Brookings Institution, but they don't do it any good either, and have pretty much decimated its reputation. I was therefore completely amazed to read "The Attack on the USS Liberty: Lessons for U.S. National Security" by Charles K. Ebinger (who should probably check to see if his pension is airtight, and hire a few bodyguards):

"It is ironic that the Israeli Defense forces attacked a flotilla of relief ships bound from Europe to Gaza in international waters in a manner all too similar to its assault against the USS Liberty also in international waters on June 8 forty-three years ago. It is even more tragic and a national disgrace that in the immediate aftermath of Memorial Day there is scant remembrance of the 34 crew members comprising naval officers, seamen, two marines and a civilian who were killed in the attack along with the 171 crew members who were wounded. While the official inquiries by both nations found the attack to be a case of mistaken identity of the Liberty, to this day there is a long record of distinguished officers and journalists who take strong exception to this view believing that the attack was deliberate. Indeed the attack on the Liberty is the only maritime incident in U.S. history where our military forces were killed that was never investigated by the Congress.

While few would dispute that the United States and Israel share vital strategic interests, all too often it has been Israeli intransigent policies rather than U.S. interests which have dominated our bilateral relationships. As a global superpower, the U.S. has strategic interests in the Middle East that go far beyond our bilateral relations with Israel - regional political stability, access to oil, control of sea lanes, etc. However so lopsided have our bilateral relations become that even after scandals such as the Pollard spying case in the 1980s came to light, high level officials and lobbyists in both Washington and Israel went out of their way to downplay the significance of the information Pollard passed to both Israeli and Russian intelligence (in order to keep Jewish immigration to Israel alive), despite testimony by four retired admirals who had served as Directors of National Intelligence that Pollard’s revelations had been devastating to U.S. national security and that any premature release would be 'irresponsible.'"

Wow! Any truth about Israel is unheard of in American political writing. Imagine the nerve of raising both the Liberty and Pollard at the same time! Ebinger concludes (my emphasis in red):

"America, it is time to wake up and listen to the very few of our leaders such as General Petraeus, who even before the Vice President’s visit warned that the stalled Middle East peace process is a direct threat to U.S. interests and prestige in the region and that the lack of progress in Palestine foments anti-Americanism, undermines Arab regimes, limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships, increases the influence of Iran, projects an image of U.S. weakness and serves as a potent recruiting tool for Al Qaeda. General Petraeus and his briefing team went on to say that the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian peace stalemate undermines the prospects for success in Afghanistan.

As we approach the anniversary of the attack on the Liberty, let us take a few minutes to reflect soberly on whether the time has not come to once again be a honest broker, to call our Israeli friends to account when necessary with sanctions that hurt and to make clear to one and all that acts such as the attack on the flotilla of humanitarian ships bound to alleviate the suffering of the men, women and children of Gaza will not occur with impunity."

Contrast this good common sense with the universal American-Jewish view of Turkey (and thus almost the official American policy view of Turkey), which went literally overnight from being one of America's staunchest and most valuable allies to being the equivalent of Osama bin Laden, based on issues that had absolutely nothing to do with American interests. Despite the Jewish bribery/blackmail jackboot on the neck of American politics, the sheer outrageousness of the raw assertion of Jewish power is still producing a tiny bit of resistance.

Rabid fanger Haim Saban supports the Saban Center for Middle East Studies, which is part of The Brookings Institution. His vile shekels don't entirely wreck the rest of The Brookings Institution, but they don't do it any good either, and have pretty much decimated its reputation. I was therefore completely amazed to read "The Attack on the USS Liberty: Lessons for U.S. National Security" by Charles K. Ebinger (who should probably check to see if his pension is airtight, and hire a few bodyguards):

"It is ironic that the Israeli Defense forces attacked a flotilla of relief ships bound from Europe to Gaza in international waters in a manner all too similar to its assault against the USS Liberty also in international waters on June 8 forty-three years ago. It is even more tragic and a national disgrace that in the immediate aftermath of Memorial Day there is scant remembrance of the 34 crew members comprising naval officers, seamen, two marines and a civilian who were killed in the attack along with the 171 crew members who were wounded. While the official inquiries by both nations found the attack to be a case of mistaken identity of the Liberty, to this day there is a long record of distinguished officers and journalists who take strong exception to this view believing that the attack was deliberate. Indeed the attack on the Liberty is the only maritime incident in U.S. history where our military forces were killed that was never investigated by the Congress.

While few would dispute that the United States and Israel share vital strategic interests, all too often it has been Israeli intransigent policies rather than U.S. interests which have dominated our bilateral relationships. As a global superpower, the U.S. has strategic interests in the Middle East that go far beyond our bilateral relations with Israel - regional political stability, access to oil, control of sea lanes, etc. However so lopsided have our bilateral relations become that even after scandals such as the Pollard spying case in the 1980s came to light, high level officials and lobbyists in both Washington and Israel went out of their way to downplay the significance of the information Pollard passed to both Israeli and Russian intelligence (in order to keep Jewish immigration to Israel alive), despite testimony by four retired admirals who had served as Directors of National Intelligence that Pollard’s revelations had been devastating to U.S. national security and that any premature release would be 'irresponsible.'"

Wow! Any truth about Israel is unheard of in American political writing. Imagine the nerve of raising both the Liberty and Pollard at the same time! Ebinger concludes (my emphasis in red):

"America, it is time to wake up and listen to the very few of our leaders such as General Petraeus, who even before the Vice President’s visit warned that the stalled Middle East peace process is a direct threat to U.S. interests and prestige in the region and that the lack of progress in Palestine foments anti-Americanism, undermines Arab regimes, limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships, increases the influence of Iran, projects an image of U.S. weakness and serves as a potent recruiting tool for Al Qaeda. General Petraeus and his briefing team went on to say that the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian peace stalemate undermines the prospects for success in Afghanistan.

As we approach the anniversary of the attack on the Liberty, let us take a few minutes to reflect soberly on whether the time has not come to once again be a honest broker, to call our Israeli friends to account when necessary with sanctions that hurt and to make clear to one and all that acts such as the attack on the flotilla of humanitarian ships bound to alleviate the suffering of the men, women and children of Gaza will not occur with impunity."

Contrast this good common sense with the universal American-Jewish view of Turkey (and thus almost the official American policy view of Turkey), which went literally overnight from being one of America's staunchest and most valuable allies to being the equivalent of Osama bin Laden, based on issues that had absolutely nothing to do with American interests. Despite the Jewish bribery/blackmail jackboot on the neck of American politics, the sheer outrageousness of the raw assertion of Jewish power is still producing a tiny bit of resistance.